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Don't do what this guy did.
He was trying to activate 3 computers manually. In order to do that he has to give me a unique ref. code from each computer.
He gave me three identical ref. codes. Trust me. That's just not possible. Out of tens of thousands of activations that have taken place in the past 6 years, no two ref. codes have ever been identical. They even change on the same computer with each installation.
I suspected he had installed two of the computers by imaging our product from the first onto the other. That would result in an error message displayed where the ref. code was. It's not a problem. All he would need to do is remove the imaged copy and install again using our installer to fix the issue.
So I tell him this.
He insists that the ref. codes are really identical.
Right. I tell him that if the ref. code I use to generate an activation code did not actually come from the computer he is trying to activate, that the activation code WILL NOT WORK. In short sending me a fake ref. code will result in not getting activated. Then I asked him to send me screen shots of the ref. codes on each computer [hoping he'd stop the silly nonsense and give me what I need to actually help him].
He sent three screen shots from three computers with three identical ref. codes.
I still didn't believe it, but I went ahead and generated 3 activation codes for the three computers and sent them back.
He reported that two of them didn't work. The error message indicated an activation code/ref. code mismatch. Can we say, "I told you so?"
Only conclusion I could draw was that he photoshopped the screen shots to hide the completely harmless error message that would have been a snap to work around if he'd just reported it in the first place.
That's a hell of a lot of work to...avoid work.
He was trying to activate 3 computers manually. In order to do that he has to give me a unique ref. code from each computer.
He gave me three identical ref. codes. Trust me. That's just not possible. Out of tens of thousands of activations that have taken place in the past 6 years, no two ref. codes have ever been identical. They even change on the same computer with each installation.
I suspected he had installed two of the computers by imaging our product from the first onto the other. That would result in an error message displayed where the ref. code was. It's not a problem. All he would need to do is remove the imaged copy and install again using our installer to fix the issue.
So I tell him this.
He insists that the ref. codes are really identical.
Right. I tell him that if the ref. code I use to generate an activation code did not actually come from the computer he is trying to activate, that the activation code WILL NOT WORK. In short sending me a fake ref. code will result in not getting activated. Then I asked him to send me screen shots of the ref. codes on each computer [hoping he'd stop the silly nonsense and give me what I need to actually help him].
He sent three screen shots from three computers with three identical ref. codes.
I still didn't believe it, but I went ahead and generated 3 activation codes for the three computers and sent them back.
He reported that two of them didn't work. The error message indicated an activation code/ref. code mismatch. Can we say, "I told you so?"
Only conclusion I could draw was that he photoshopped the screen shots to hide the completely harmless error message that would have been a snap to work around if he'd just reported it in the first place.
That's a hell of a lot of work to...avoid work.